Business & Money
by Addster
Summary: "Didn't your mother teach you never to talk to strangers?" Drabble inspired one-shot, not too long. Kaku/Tsu


**AN: This is another story I got from Soraya the All Speaker's drabbles, Tales of the Leaves. This is the one with Kakuzu and little Tsunade. I thought it was cute and she let me run with the idea I had for it and so, this little thing was born!**

**Disclaimer: I don't even own half the things in my room and you expect me to own a multi-million dollar series of manga? Y'all physco!**

His mission was simple: steal the scrolls needed and take the mighty Hokage's granddaughter with him.

'_Easy enough…'_ Kakuzu thought to himself as he stared at the enormous mansion settled in the belly of the vast Konoha forest. His steps were silent like that of a lion and his agility surprising for a man his size as he maneuvered through the vines and leaves. When he finally reached the right side of the mansion, he did a quick scan around him, and then started climbing up the wall with chakra infused feet. When he reached the window, his glazy green eyes scanned the sill of the window, finding the object of his necessary search.

The tiny sealing tag that was identical in color to the sill was slapped onto the wood, protecting the window from being opened from outside.

But only to the untrained eye.

With a quick zip of his hands, Kakuzu formed the hand signs needed to break the seal. With that done and the formula broken, the paper was sliced in half after the release and had now left the window vulnerable to invasion.

"Sweet." Kakuzu whispered as he gently pulled the window open and slipped inside, his right foot landing on the carpet coating a good third of the first Hokage's home. With his footfall padded, he swiftly made his way towards the end of the hallway, the blueprints he had memorized earlier were paying off as he flipped through another set of hand signs to break the seal on the scroll room door. Creeping in and surveying the large room, making sure to leave the door cracked open at a forty-degree angle, weary of the reverse seal that could lock him in from the inside.

In the far left corner, the light of the moon guided his eyes over towards the dark oak wood stand the forbidden scrolls were kept on. Kakuzu made his way over and quickly glanced over the kanji branded on each of the scrolls. He grabbed about five of them, the one's his elders had specified and shoved them into the pack slung across his back. Just as he began to leave, he caught a shadow flitting across the doorway and froze, a kunai drawn in preparation. Kakuzu melted into the shadows when the door opened wider to reveal-

"Hello?" A small blonde girl whispered into the room, her small hand rubbing at her eyes. Kakuzu internally smiled at his good fortune and shifted his weight to his left side so he could grab the girl and dash out in one quick motion. Just as he was about to initiate with his get away, the girl turned away and was closing the door with her tiny hands. Panic flooded through him and Kakuzu mad his dash just in time to get out of the rigged door and vault over the toddler's head, landing a little ungracefully inches before the small girl. Kakuzu made eye contact with the child and was immediately starting to rethink his mission.

"I knew you were in there." She chirped quietly and made her way over to Kakuzu, her big honey-brown eyes focused on the mask covering up his stitched face. Kakuzu could feel his face growing hot when she reached her hand up to grab at his mask. Before she was able to pull it away, Kakuzu took the child's arm in his hand, stopping her.

"Didn't your mother teach you never to talk to strangers?" He asked her gruffly and she nodded.

"Yeah, but mommy doesn't let strangers in the house. So you're not a stranger cause you're in the house." She answered sweetly and Kakuzu had to hold himself from slapping his face.

"But you've never seen me before, so that makes me a stranger." He retorted as coolly as his temper would allow, feeling irately stupid for having started a pointless conversation with a toddler.

"Ok." She said before yawning and rubbing her eye again.

"You look sleepy. Why don't you go back to bed?" Kakuzu tried in his best nice voice.

"What's your name?" The toddler asked out of the blue and Kakuzu could feel his blood pressure rise in response.

"If I tell you, will you go to bed?" With the nod of the little girl's head, Kakuzu sighed.

"I'm Kakuzu."

"I'm Tsunade." The girl replied and took one of Kakuzu's big hands with both of hers, and shook his hand.

"Didn't your mommy tell you how to shake hands?" She giggled and Kakuzu stood up, his mind torn on what to do. His mission was to get the scrolls; that was done. But taking the girl was optional. Kakuzu was bewildered as his conscious started speaking to him, telling him to just go and forget about the naïve granddaughter of the Hokage.

So he did.

He walked down the hall leading to the window, quickly noting that the little girl was following him.

"I thought you said you were going to bed?" Kakuzu nearly yelled, but managed to hold his octave at a low enough whisper.

"My room is in here." Tsunade answered with a little duh at the end of her sentence.

"Fine. Go back to sleep, and don't tell anybody about me." He swung his legs out of the window and was getting ready to jump when Tsunade called out to him.

"Why, Mr. Kakuzu?" She asked innocently. Kakuzu turned back to her and quickly thought up a reasonable lie.

"Because I'm shy." He answered flatly and disappeared into the night, leaving Tsunade alone in her dark hallway.

"Ok, Mr. Kakuzu…" She whispered to herself as she closed the window.

**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Twenty years later on her first S-ranked mission, Tsunade saw him again. He hadn't aged a day and still walked with the same air of significance like he did on that night so long ago.

"YOU!" Tsunade cried out when he came within earshot. Kakuzu turned to face her and nearly jumped when he saw her.

She had gotten big, and not just height wise.

"Ah, little Tsunade Senju." Kakuzu drawled in his spot almost ten feet away from Tsunade and her small team of fellow unmasked ANBU. Unbeknownst to Tsunade, Kakuzu had been branded and S-class criminal and was now roaming the five great nations in search of his next cash cow, which happened to be the same person Tsunade's team was hunting.

"You stole from my grandfather! You took his forbidden scrolls, you jerk!" Tsunade went for Kakuzu's throat, her kunai just barely missing his jugular as he sidestepped her. With practiced hands, he tangled her feet with his black threads and left her before the deserted town tavern, cursing like a sailor.

"I have a hit to get to, so if I go, will you stop screaming?" He asked in a bargaining tone, the one he used to haggle more money out of his clients. Tsunade remembered that same tone from the night he broke in, smooth like velvet with an underlying roughness of sulfur.

"No." Tsunade spat and Kakuzu smiled under his mask, the stitches holding his mouth together pulling against his skin as he did so.

"Goodbye, little leaf princess." He whispered and entered the tavern, quickly obtaining his target and sneaking out the back way to avoid the enraged Leaf jounin outside, laughing as he felt her break free from his threads and tear ass after him.

"Funny child, that one…" He said with a tinge of humor and sped off to the collection office. He had hit money to collect and their little reunion would have to wait.

**Hope you liked it, I did. Thanx for reading and please leave a review.**

**p.s,**

**I have another story like this based on one of Soraya's drabbles, it's called Lions and it's based on the second drabble in her series. Check it out, it's really cool. **

**PEACE:)**


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